I’ll be brief about this: if you love music, you really owe it to yourself to get the Season One four-disc Blu-ray set of Elvis Costello’s amazing Sundance Channel series, Spectacle. More than just a spectacle, this show is a singing talking walking laughing crying winging barnstorming assemblage of musicians and luminaries crossing generations and genres, all gathering for a common love: music. The 5.1 surround sound and state of the art live-in the studio visuals deliver everything you might possibly want from a live-studio disc. But really, this is about the music, and the performances. From the jaw-dropping opener of disc one, which reunites Elvis with Allen Toussaint and The Imposters (and with James Burton from Elvis Presley’s band!) doing Elton John’s “Border Song,” through to Julian Schnabel’s stunning Martini-driven spoken word delivery of Lou Reed’s “Rock Minuet” (while Lou is being interviewed), Spectacle is essential.

I am still working my way though the set, so the best may be yet to come, but just scanning the list of artists being interviewed by Elvis — he, a music scholar and record collector of legendary proportion — is exciting in its own right: Smokey Robinson, Sir Elton John, Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny, Tony Bennett, The Police, Rufus Wainright, Jakob Dylan, Diana Krall, Herbie Hancock, Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash, Norah Jones, John Mellencamp, James Taylor, Renee Fleming and more. I can’t wait to get to the bonus tracks showing Elvis doing Elton’s “Ballad of a Well Known Gun” and Lou’s “Beginning to See The LIght.” Wow. Wow. Wow. Get. It. Now. When can I pre-order Season two? And will there be a Season Three? Inquiring minds want to know…

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